The story of a drunken editor
Monday, August 24, 2015
A prominent editor of a powerful newspaper recently caused all sorts of drama as he resisted arrest, drove under heavy influence of alcohol, and worse, without a license. I may even be understating this embarrassing case, because to say that he was resisting arrest would be an understatement, because he was even hurling insults at the police, our law enforcers as he refused to obey the traffic cops orders.
Gaborone is a very small town, this piece of news would have been a scoop in any other democratic setting, except in Botswana, because it would seem journalists and editors here would not like to rub one another the wrong way. This is a pity, for it is assumed that since the media is the watch dog of our society in a well functioning democracy, then the question of who watches the watchdog should not be hard to answer, the media is expected to be its own watch dog, rebuking their own, chastising them, and even revoking their licenses in an environment where journalists like lawyers have practicing licenses such as Australia, the UK, and USA.
The recent disclosure by the IEC that 2,513 registrations have been turned down due to various irregularities should prompt all Batswana to meticulously review the voters' rolls and address concerns about rejected registrations.The disparities flagged by the IEC are troubling and emphasise the significance of rigorous voter registration processes.Out of the rejected registrations, 29 individuals were disqualified due to non-existent Omang...